Github Meeting Notes Bookmarklet

Using Github's issue tracker as a notebook to record and keep track of meeting tasks.

This bookmarklet basically generates a meeting tasks report in MS Word document. The template of the report can be customised in a HTML file and fed to the bookmarklet.

The Problem

Have you ever had a time at work when your boss wants you to use Microsoft Word to record and keep track of the tasks discussed in every meeting and then churn out a tasks report in Microsoft Word for his viewing pleasure?

Recently, I found myself having to keep track of meeting tasks and compile them into a Microsoft Word document report on a weekly basis at work. The process isn't difficult, but it's a very tedious, time-consuming and error-prone one. Basically, I've to convert myself into a human Github/Jira issue tracker of sorts once a week at work.

After the initial weeks at refining my motor skills in MS Word, eye-balling through rows after rows of meeting tasks and clicking away updating them one by one, I can't help questioning the irony of using a word processor as a task tracking tool.

I'm guessing it's just that few old-school cubicle dwellers who got so stuck within the Microsoft Office world. Need to send an email? It has to be Outlook. Got to draw a diagram? Powerpoint! Gantt charts? Excel! Reports? Word. :/

The Idea!

There are already many tools out there for keeping track of tasks. I thought as long as I can send the report as a Microsoft Word file for my boss to read, I would have satisfied his requirement and he probably would have just thought I had done it manually in the MS Word. In other words, I could still secretly use an issue tracker for this purpose but I just have to somehow save my report as a MS Word document in the template he had "designed" for the report.

Github already has a great issue tracking tool! Best of all, Github is free! So, instead of tracking issues manually, why not use Github's issue tracker and its kanban board to record meeting tasks in a repository and then, with just a single click, generate a report that's ready to be sent out?

Retrieving issues from the Github repo's issue tracker:

The issues in the Github repository plugged into the Word document based on a template:

This simple idea uses a bookmarklet. Currently, it does the following which fulfils what I need at work:

• Create/Update tasks discussed in meetings
• Update task statuses
• Sort the most recently updated tasks at the top of the list in the report for easy viewing
• Closed tasks should remain in the reports for a certain number of days (configurable: reportClosedIssueNumDays) before removing them in subsequent reports
• Tasks should include assignees (use of labels prefixed with Assignee:) and target dates (milestones)
• After report is generated, launch default email client for me to send meeting report after a meeting

Now, need to reopen an old task? No need to manually flip through the past n months of Word documents for that closed task intended to be reopened, copy all of its contents/past updates and paste them into the new file. 😰

Just have to reopen an issue in the repository, and then click on that bookmarklet! 😅

I'm hoping this can save myself a lot of time and headaches!

Usage

Either download from the release or build from the source.

npm install

or

yarn install

Then build the files:

npm run build

Bookmarklet Script

Works only in modern browsers that support ES6. Tested in Chrome 64.0.3282.167, Webkit 537.36.

Create a bookmark with this script:

javascript:(function(a='REPO_USERNAME',b='REPO_NAME',c='GITHUB_TOKEN',d='FILENAME',e='REPORT_TEMPLATE_URL',f='URL_TO_UMD_SCRIPT',g=30){const i=`eval(\`(${async function(j,k,l,m,n,o,p){const q=async v=>{try{return 200===(await fetch(v,{method:'HEAD',cache:'no-cache'})).status}catch(w){return!1}},r=await q(o);if(!r)return alert('Error: Cannot find main script file.'),window.close(),!1;const t=await q(n);if(!t)return alert('Error: Cannot find template file.'),window.close(),!1;const u=document.createElement('script');u.src=o,document.body.appendChild(u),u.addEventListener('load',async()=>{const v=GhMeetingNotebook.bookmarklet,w=await(await fetch(n)).text();v({token:l,repo:{owner:j,name:k},report:{filenamePrefix:m,closedIssuesNumDays:p,templateHtml:w}})})}.toString()})('${a}', '${b}', '${c}', '${d}', '${e}', '${f}', '${g}')\`)`;window.open(`javascript:${i}`,'_blank')})();

Placeholder Variables	Description
REPO_USERNAME	Username of Github repo
REPO_NAME	Name of repo on Github
GITHUB_TOKEN	Github token
FILENAME	File name to be used when saving report
REPORT_TEMPLATE_URL	URL to a HTML template file for report
URL_TO_UMD_SCRIPT	URL to the UMD gh-meeting-notes.js script

Have to find a place to host the files at REPORT_TEMPLATE_URL and URL_TO_UMD_SCRIPT.

The un-minified version of this script is at ./src/bookmarklet/bookmarklet-client.js.

Special Labels

These special labels can be used for an issue.

Label	Description
Assignee: #	To set an assignee name to a task. Eg: Assignee: Jane. Jane will be one of the assignees of the task.
Report: Include	Include a closed task in the report even if it is older than its reportClosedIssueNumDays
Report: Exclude	Exclude a task from the report